


A Spoonful of Magic

by amelia_petkova



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Community: au_bingo, Gen, Humor, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-14
Updated: 2010-12-14
Packaged: 2017-10-13 16:19:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/139253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amelia_petkova/pseuds/amelia_petkova
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The cast of Merlin acts out Mary Poppins. Written for the "Other: Disney" square on my bingo card.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Spoonful of Magic

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own either Merlin or Mary Poppins.
> 
> I ended up condensing the events of the movie in this.

Really, it was pure dumb luck that I, a wizard, ended up as the newest employee in the household of Uther Pendragon, a man who ranted at the top of his lungs for hours on end whenever he caught a whiff of magic. And that was if he was in a good mood.

The ad had said, “Nanny wanted for two children, boy and girl. No experience necessary. Start immediately.” I was interviewed by Gaius, who took care of the daily household affairs.

“I’m here to interview for the nanny position,” I said.

“You’re hired,” said Gaius. Looking rather harried, he shooed me up the stairs.

I should have paid attention to the warning signs but I’d been out of work for too long and couldn’t afford to be fussy.

I found a young blond boy and dark-haired girl in a toy-strewn nursery. “Hello,” I said, putting a big smile on, “My name’s Merlin; I’m your new nanny. What are your names?”

“I’m Arthur Pendragon,” the boy said arrogantly. “This is Morgana.”

That idiotic smile froze on my face. “Pendragon?”

“That’s what I just said.”

Oh, this was bad. This was very, very bad. But it might look even more suspicious if I left the house immediately. All I had to do was stay undercover for a little while. Just until I saved up a bit of money, and then I could take off. Uther was said to spend almost all his time at the bank where he worked; I might not ever meet him. Maybe Gwen could help me find another job. Easy, right?

“I hope you last longer than a week,” Morgana said. “Our last nanny stayed only two days.”

I wasn’t sure that I would do much better. I had some experience entertaining the village children back home, but that was wildly different from being the main person responsible for the welfare of Uther Pendragon’s offspring. “What was the matter?” I asked.

Morgana frowned. “She didn’t like to play. She said she didn’t even like children.”

“Well, I like children. And I promise that we’ll play. But first I think I had better unpack. Which room belongs to the nanny?”

The children led me to a small but clean room next door. I glanced at my carpetbag. I used a spell that allowed all my belongings to fit inside but I wasn’t going to pull out the larger items with the children watching. “You should start tidying up the nursery before we go out this afternoon. I’ll be with you in just a minute.”

Arthur and Morgana looked mutinous, but returned to the nursery. I began to unpack my things: a coat tree, wash stand, and a comfortable mattress to replace the sagging one on the bed were among its contents. I wasn’t going to bring out my book of spells in this house until I found a good hiding place. If anybody asked where everything came from, I could say that they were my things sent from my previous home.

I was in the middle of pulling an armchair out of the carpetbag when the children returned. Arthur’s eyes got very wide. “Sorcery!” He was Uther Pendragon’s son, all right. Morgana looked delighted.

I’m not always good at thinking fast, but sometimes fate gave you a break. I said desperately, “If you don’t tell your father I’m a wizard, I’ll give you a sword.”

Arthur switched from being outraged to looking like any small boy who was about to be presented with a sharp object. “Okay.”

I rummaged about in the carpetbag. I had a sword somewhere in there that had come from one of my ex-girlfriends. She had always babbled something about the sword having a destined owner but I was more concerned with not being fired or thrown into jail on my first day of work. I finally found it beneath a pile of shirts. It was almost as tall as the boy. “Here you go.”

“Why don’t I get one?” Morgana demanded.

Oh, for God’s sake. I muttered the Spell of Duplication, and a replica of the sword appeared in her hands. “There. Is the nursery tidied?”

“We got bored,” Morgana said.

I looked into the nursery. The room was still a mess. “We could make it less boring.”

“Are you going to use more magic?” Arthur asked.

What the hell. Nobody else was likely to pass by and the children would probably keep the secret as long as they stayed entertained. I snapped my fingers and the pillows flew back onto Arthur’s bed. “Do that. It makes cleaning into a game.”

“But I want to duel Morgana,” Arthur protested.

“Not until after the nursery is clean. Snap your fingers; you’ll enjoy it.”

The children quickly took to the new way of tidying up. You really can get a person to do anything so long as you throw a treat into it. Arthur and Morgana had a great deal of fun watching their toys fly into their proper places. Several times I had to duck to avoid being hit with wooden blocks and dolls.

The bad thing about magic, is that it tends to get out of hand. I had to end things when Morgana began fighting with one of her dresses and Arthur’s tin soldiers were chasing him into the closet.

“Stop that at once!”

The remaining toys fell over. Morgana kicked the dress under her bed and Arthur dumped the soldiers into their box.

“Let’s go out for the rest of the afternoon,” I said. “There are some people I think you’d like to meet.”

“I want to bring my sword,” Arthur said.

“Fine.”

We passed Gaius on the way out. He gave us an odd look; he must have heard all the commotion.

“We were cleaning the nursery; be back later,” I said and hurried the children out the door before they could give anything away.

“Where are we going?” Morgana asked.

“You’ll find out when we get there?”

“Will it be boring?”

“Definitely not.”

#

Within a half-hour we sat at a floating table, taking tea. It had to float because we were at the Dragon’s house, and this was the only way to communicate at eye-level.

“An interesting turn of events, young warlock,” he commented upon learning my new job. Dealing with him could be annoying at times, but his cook made the best scones in all of Albion. “What I wouldn’t give to see Uther Pendragon’s face when he learns who is watching over his children.”

“I’m hoping to avoid that,” I said.

Arthur and Morgana had been delighted not only to meet a dragon, but to be allowed to have their afternoon tea in mid-air. Morgana immediately took to the new arrangement but Arthur avoided looking down at the floor.

“Will you come and live in our basement?” Arthur asked.

“An interesting idea but I’d rather stay in my own house.” The Dragon extended his neck until his face nearly touched Arthur’s. After a brief staring contest, he turned back to me. “Your fate is tied to this boy.”

I glanced at Arthur. “I really don’t think so. I mean, it’s just a job.”

“He will come to depend on you as the once and future banker of Albion.”

“Like I said, I’m just the nanny.”

“What’s my future like?” Morgana asked.

A puff of smoke escaped the Dragon’s nostrils. “Complicated.”

#

“Why couldn’t we have stayed longer?” Arthur asked as we left. “I wanted to challenge him to a duel.”

“That’s a magical sword, but he still would have defeated you in two seconds.”

“Would not!”

“Yes, he would. And then he’d probably eat you. There’s somebody else I want you to meet today.”

I found Gwen working on her chalk drawings in the plaza. The bright colors were all over her hands and had smudged her face; she had a habit of pushing back her curls while working.

“And who is this?” she asked, smiling.

“Arthur and Morgana Pendragon,” I said. “I’m their new nanny.”

Her lips twitched and she laughed once, covering it up with a pretend cough. “It’s nice to meet you,” she told the children. To me, she asked, “Why bring them here?”

“Walking around seemed like a nice way to spend the afternoon. How is work today?”

“Not too bad.” She scooped up the few coins passers-by had tossed into her cap.

“What do you do?” Morgana asked.

“I make drawings.”

Morgana examined the pictures that surrounded us. “But it’s just chalk. It’ll wash away as soon as it rains.”

“I can always make more. I never draw the same picture twice.”

“I like this one,” Arthur said. He pointed to a drawing that showed the borders of a forest and a road that led into the trees.

“There’s not much in it,” Morgana said.

Gwen shook her head. “You’re just not looking at it right. If you go just past that curve, there’s a knight who fights monsters. Farther in, there’s a castle on an island where two sorceresses live. All the stories you ever heard of are in there.”

“Would you like to see them?” I asked.

Arthur gave me an impressively annoyed look for such a small child. “It’s a _drawing_.”

“There’s no reason why that has to stop us. Everybody hold on.” We kept the children in the middle; I held on to Arthur and Morgana took Gwen’s hand.

We jumped into the drawing.

#

The knight Gwen spoke of was named Lancelot. He kissed the girls’ hands and offered to find new chalks for Gwen. He showed Arthur how to hold a sword properly and practiced fighting an unfortunate tree.

There was a boat that sailed itself across the lake, without any help from me. The sorceresses were named Morgause and Nimueh. Nimueh showed Morgana how to do magic tricks. In one part of the castle there was an axe stuck into a chopping block.

“What’s that for?” Arthur asked.

Morgause grinned at him. “Cutting the heads off of nosy little boys.”

Gwen laughed at the look on my face. “There’s nothing to worry about. I drew them, after all.”

It started raining during the tournament. As we watched the jousting knights, the colors started to blur together. Within moments, the forest disappeared and we were back in the plaza.

“We were really inside a chalk drawing,” Arthur said, an amazed look on his face.

Morgana glared. “You got chalk dust all over my dress.”

“That was lovely,” Gwen said to me. “You should get out of the rain soon though, unless you want to have sick children on your hands.”

“We’ll see you later, then.”

“Goodbye, Gwen!” Arthur and Morgana chorused.

Uther arrived home before us. He stood in the entrance, glaring disapprovingly at our little group. “Where have you been?” he asked me, not even making an attempt to get to know his newest employee hired only hours before. “I wanted to show Arthur and Morgana around the bank today.”

“I didn’t know that,” I protested.

“The children were supposed to tell you.”

I turned around. Arthur and Morgana had crept halfway up the stairs. They froze when I saw them, water dripping onto the carpet from their soaked clothing. Morgana said to her father, “I’m sorry, we forgot. Arthur and I were just so excited to have a new nanny that we couldn’t think about anything else.” She was the very image of a well-meaning, forgetful little girl who felt sorry for have upsetting her father. I rolled my eyes

Uther gave in. “Very well. But be ready to come to work tomorrow.”

“Yes, Father,” they said, and scampered the rest of the way up to the nursery.

“So what were they doing all afternoon?” he asked me.

“Oh, this and that. Walking around the city. Looking at educational monuments.”

He nodded. “You may return to work.”

It was difficult not to run away from him as I followed the children. Arthur and Morgana had changed out of their wet clothes and climbed into bed.

“Today was fun,” Morgana said. “Can we do it again?”

“If you remember not to tell your father about the magic. And if the two of you don’t get sick from being in the rain this afternoon.”

“You’re not too bad as a nanny,” Arthur said, “compared to the others.”

“Someday you and I will have a talk about giving compliments,” I told him. “Go to sleep now, both of you.”

“Good night.”

I turned out the light and shut the nursery door. This job might work out, after all.


End file.
